Ubuntu on the Samsung NC10

[insyzygy]

Does anyone have any information on changing the trackpad sensitivity. I tried messing with the xorg to add SHMConfig but I couldn't get that to work. Currently the trackpad is very trigger happy. I don't think I did the correct modifications to Xorg

[JBack_Admin]

anybody tried the settings suggested on the Wiki?

[nickrich]

Which settings are we talking about here - changes to xorg.conf or the HAL stuff?

I looked at xorg.conf, found it didn't have an Inputdevice section, so tried to add one, but then it said I did not have permission to save the file.

I'm not sure how much effort to put into this. I'm finding the touchpad OK left to right, but up and down is a bit fast and difficult to control. It would be nice to get it working better.

Nick

[zinaf]

I personally think that there is as good reason for having the speeds of the two axes to be different (intended or not by Samsung; I don't know how it works under windows as never used it).
the point is that the touchpad is rectangular, thus having less space on the heigh then on the length. If you are to utilise the heigh better you should have faster speed as there is less space to slide your finger. This way you would cover more ground on the screen.
Whether as installed we have the right balance between up-down and left-right speed might be up to the individual preference. For me it is acceptable.

[nickrich]

Yes, I take your point. In Windows the pointer moves more slowly (by default) and at an even speed whether you are moving up/down or right/left. I find this makes it easier to position the pointer accurately.

I feel you should be able to adjust trackpad sensitivity in Ubuntu, as indeed I believe you can if you get the touchpad applet working.

[nickrich]

Thanks Jon. I think I need to go and read that Terminal tutorial properly.

Nick

[mac]

I had to do a bit of research on touchpad settings a while ago, which turned out to be handy for setting up the NC10 with Ubuntu Hardy. Here are some notes that I hope folks here may find useful. These notes cover
(a) how to adjust the sensitivity of the NC10 Touchpad,
(b) how to turn it off briefly while you are typing.

First you need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to turn on SHMConfig, and to add values for MinSpeed, MaxSpeed and AccelFactor. Make a backup of the file, then:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the touchpad section, and edit to include the following:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.1"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.2"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.001"
EndSection

Sensitivity
According to "man synaptics": the MinSpeed, MaxSpeed and AccelFactor parameters control the pointer motion speed. The speed value defines the scaling between touchpad coordinates and screen coordinates. When moving the finger very slowly, the MinSpeed value is used, when moving very fast the MaxSpeed value is used. When moving the finger at moderate speed, you get a pointer motion speed somewhere between MinSpeed and MaxSpeed. If you don’t want any acceleration, set MinSpeed and MaxSpeed to the same value.

The values above work OK with my NC10. You may wish to experiment a bit, but I suggest you alter the values by small amounts progressively while you do. (You'll need to restart X (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace) after you've saved each change to xorg.conf to make your new settings take effect.)


Disable the touchpad while typing
The utility syndaemon can be used to temporarily disable a Synaptic touchpad while typing. You need SHMConfig to be "on" to allow the syndaemon utility to access the touchpad's settings. Make sure you have added the SHMConfig option (see above) if it does not already exist. After you restart X, you will be able to run syndaemon from a terminal:

syndaemon -t -d -i 2

* the -d flag tells syndaemon to run all the time and monitor the keyboard
* the -t flag tells it to only disable tapping and scrolling, not pointer movement
* the -i flag is how long (in seconds) to disable the touchpad *after* the last keypress

Use syndaemon -h to view additional options. For fuller details, see man syndaemon

To have syndaemon start up automatically when you log on, add the above command as a new startup program (System -> Preferences -> Sessions -> Startup Programs).

HTH

[nickrich]

Thanks for such a detailed and useful explanation mac. My trackpad sensitivity is now much improved, though I can't see Touchpad under System Preferences still. Should I? (there is a Touchpad tab under Mouse, but I think that was always there and it doesn't enable any sensitivity tweaking).

If I could add a couple of novice questions:

Why "gksudo" rather than "sudo"? Is this just to get a graphical front end?

After doing a "Man" at the terminal, how do you get back to the normal prompt?

Nick

[mac]

[nickrich]

[mac]

[mac]

[nickrich]

Well, I'm trying hard not to be put off! I'm probably a bit spoilt by being used to OSX, but determined to avoid using Windows on the NC10 if I can!

Anyway, I'm almost there I think. I now have Touchpad under System > Preferences, but when I fire it up it says "Gsynaptics couldn't initialise. You have to set 'SHMConfig' 'true' in xorg.conf or XF86Config to use Gsynaptics."

So does this mean I need another line in xorg.conf - Option "SHMConfig" "true" as well as "on"?

Thanks for all the help.

Nick.

[mac]

[nickrich]

Well, I've tried replacing "on" with "true" and also having them both, but still I get the same "Gsynaptics couldn't initialise..." message. I've also tried a complete shutdown and restart as well as Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.

The message says 'SHMConfig' 'true', ie using single quotes instead of double ones. Any significance in that?